(Yes yes i know we have other things to talk about after a sorry Day 1 display)
Just wanted a general consensus of the public on how you felt about this little experiment.
I personally think it worked out pretty well. Malik looked just as confident as he looks on any other position. With a few more games he will gain some aggression and inshallah by the time we get to India next year he will become the Saeed Anwar we’ve been dying to see!
One thing is very evident is that Malik has the drive to learn and he is learning and improving his game in leaps and bounds.
Too early to judge. He was bit unlucky to be given out when the ball hit him so high. A close decision. We should persist with him throughout this series and see how he fares. If he can weather messrs Harmison, Hoggard and Flintoff at top of the order than we have got a reliable opener.
i think he is a mentally strong player and has a good batting technique....
he's played almost at all positions in the line-up and i think he can handle opening better than some specialist openers that we tried (i.e. taufiq, nazir, farhat etc)....
and in the middle order we have the big 3 (younis, yousif and inzi) where it gets difficult for pak to accomodate a quality player like malik....
so opening with malik is good both for pak and for malik himself....
Presently i dont think he has the done enough to prove that he can open for Pakistan on "ALL" the tracks of the world. Sub continent and flat batting wickets he has enjoyed sucess. At home on subcontient wickets this experiment might work.
most important thing is tht our team management should give malik and butt enough time to set with each other... malik is a good player and i hope he will solve the problem of opening batsman for pak
malik tries very hard and is always willing to gut it out, but i thikn we are just wasting time and not really solving the problem, this is a dead track, and if we need permanent openers we need them for all conditions! On a litle bit more seaming and bouncy track he will really struggle, that sy i think him being an opener for us doesent solve the problem long term!
Malik gets full marks for guts and team spirit, unfortunately that is not enuff when the ball starts to do weird things. I know the decision today was slightly doubtful, at first impression both Waqar and Botham were in agreement it was out, on the side camera there was some doubt. Thats not the point, ball pitched outside the offstump swinging in to the batsman and Malik was caught napping on his backfoot. Shoaib does not have what is required of a full time opener.
^ But after this series, we will be able to see where he stands against a quality bowling side albeit on slightly friendlier pitches. If he proves to be a success, fair game to him. I’d say stick with him. Those who say that he is yet to be proven on ALL kinds of pitches, kindly enlighten me which opener has done it?? Only Salman Butt comes to mind who scored a century and a fifty in his first series abroad.
Malik’s confident shuffle on the crease was a lot more pleasing to the eye than Taufeeq Umar dancing all over the pitch and missing Balaji’s straight non-swinging deliveries. LoL!
Saby Sahib
You forget Taufeeq's performance against South Africa in S Africa against quality bowling while others failed Taufeeq was the best thing to happen. We cannot compromise on the basics and should encourage merit and believe in our available talent. Taufeeq in recent times has suffered from poor form, thus his exclusion, but he is not the only regular opener playing in domestic cricket.
^ I NEVER dismissed his brilliant performances. He was one of our star performers immediately before the world cup in SA and then went on to make great impact against SA at home. I used to like him actually but the thing with him is that when he is out of form, it felt as if he has lost everything, his calmness at the wicket, his assured footwork. He came into indian series at home full of confidence and failed pathetically without showing even semblence of guts which Malik always and will have even when he is out of form.
Anyways I agree that he is not the only regular opener in Pakistan but if Sehwag can be moulded into a successful test opener, why not Malik? I hope he proves to be a success because we can do with strong characters like him.
For any test opener, first and foremost, his batting technique needs to be correct as it is going to be his most important weapon against the new ball. True, that the batting technique needs to be correct while batting at any position in the top order, it becomes a MUST for an opener. Regardless of Shoaib Malik's performance in this series, the fact of the matter is that Shoaib does not possess a sound batting technique. He has no movement of the feet which is the most important thing to gauge the ball correctly especially on bouncy pitches. I have not seen such a dead pitch for a long time, but even on this dead pitch, Malik was seen struggling against Hoggard’s swing. Second, I saw Shoaib ducking some short-pitch balls from Hoggard and Hamirson in a very awkward way. He used to take his eyes off the ball.
Undoubtedly, Shoaib is a utility player who can be very handy in ODIs but expecting him to open for Pakistan in test matches on a regular basis is nothing but plain stupidity. There is no way he can sustain the opening spells in England, Australia, NZ or South Africa. I don’t know what exactly Bob is trying to achieve by asking Malik to open. Yes Malik is a hard worker and a good learner, but these two qualities have nothing to do with his major technical flaws. Do you really expect him to survive against Mcgrath or these Englishmen in England? If so, I would highly suggest you to go and watch Ashes 2005 when even Justin Langer was hit on his helmet almost every time he went to open an innings.
Now if we do not have any other opener to chose from, it merely reflects the sad state of cricket affairs in Pakistan but it does not justify introducing another negative into the equation hoping that two negatives would result in a positive.
Taufeeq Umer was always my favorite opener, but his dismal performance and lack of confidence has’nt helped his career. His downfall started when our great Khan sahib praised his hundred against India and tipped him as our future captain, since then its been downhill for poor Taufeeq.
Only thing common btw Sehwag and Malik is there gutsy style, from thereon there is no comparison. Sehwag is a proper RH batsman who can bowl occasionally, while Malik is primarily a bowler who can bat reasonably well. Sehwag scored a century on debut, Malik has yet to score a century after 9 1/2 test appearances. Sehwag belongs to the 300 club, Malik has a long way to go.
Shoaib Malik is certainly a quality player, but has yet to prove his mettle as a top class batsman who can play top class bowlers. As for being patient, well why not accord the same standard with players like taufeeq umer, imran farhat, bazid khan? Why do we have to depend upon guts? Our new bowlers have raised the red flag for our topline bowlers, a day will come soon inshallah when our established bastmen will start seeing red in their dreams.
Agree 100%.
Just want to add something to your last paragraph. Its even more pathetic when they are experimenting with malik at the cost of afridi who was one of the most successful player in Pakistan cricket this year. What kind of message they are giving to afridi who is trying to get a permanent spot in the side by performing consistently?
Yes malik is hardworking. dedicated and committed player but thats not the only thing you need from a player to be a sound test opener. Yes like everyone he deserve a chance and decent run but the sad part is that we have other more technically sound cricketers ( here I am not talking about afridi) sitting on the bench and if they really want to experiment for the opening slot, those players deserve more than malik.
I know this is not directed towards me, anyways Uncle Mcgrath is one of the best opening bowlers around no doubt about that. Not just Pak batsmen, opening pairs in all major teams have had problems playing Mcgrath, so it would not be a good benchmark.
I did not compare Sehwag and Malik’s style of play. My main point was that both do NOT possess techniques to play as an opener. Sehwag proved to be a success because he was persisted with and gradually grew in confidence.
and by the way Sehwag belongs to 300 club only because of our butter-fingered fielding
p.s I agree with your point that at least Bazid khan deserves to be given a fair run.
If malik was the only choice for the opening slot, than I would have said that Ok, we should go with him. Saby the frustrating part is that we still have players in the pool who can deliver ot alteast have the potential to deliver being more technically competent. There is just a need of change in strategy.
How many times we have seens ganugly, tendulkar or laxman playing at different spots in the test side including opening position. Did we ever hear form them that they all are natural middle order players and shouldn’t be tried at opening psot. If they can do it than any quality player can do it. WHY cant they try younis as an opener when he can bat at one down position? Atleast it won’t sound a crazy experiment. With this approach they can accomodate an allrounder liie afridi and a batsman like kamal or raza in the middle order.
Technically correct batsman is a story of the past until Sehwag came and proved everyone wrong. Sehwag also has no or miminal movement of feet but he scores runs. Saby stated his tripple hundred was due to butter fingered fileding. Although I personally think it is unjust to take away the credit of scoring a tipple hundred from a batsman but even if we take that tripple century away from Sehwaq his test average is well above 50, which by the way is more then our best players M. Yousaf, Inzamam, Younis Khan. Another prime example of minimal footwork was perhaps the best opener we had, Saeed Anwar. Anwar played all of his off stump shots away from his body with minimal footwork. Yet his hand-eye co-ordination was so good that footwork didnt really matter.
I am not justifying Malik’s doing as an opener. I personally also felt yesterday that he wasnt the right man for the job. Not only does he have minimal footwork he also gets to the ball late and his hand eye co-ordination is not as good as it should be for someone who doesnt move his feet a whole lot. Even Salman Butt doesnt move his feet a lot but Butt has a much better hand-eye co-ordination and he sees the ball early and his cover drives are a delight to watch. He plays them away from his body, the left hand coming into play big time and the wrists rolling.
Only Salman Butt comes to mind who scored a century and a fifty in his first series abroad.